PER, EPS, PBR and BPS are calculated in-house from the last 4 quarters (2025Q3–2026Q2) · Dividend yield is based on ₩2,630 per share · Prices as of the 2026-10-02 close
NAVER keeps setting quarterly revenue records on advertising, commerce and global C2C growth, yet operating profit has flattened as AI infrastructure and content rights costs rise faster than revenue.
Second-quarter 2026 revenue reached KRW 3.3888tn, a quarterly record, while operating profit of KRW 520.3bn fell 0.2% year on year, per the company's disclosure.
The operating margin slid from around 19% in the fourth quarter of 2025 to the mid-15% range in the second quarter of 2026, as costs grew faster than revenue.
NVIDIA is investing about USD 1bn via a third-party share issue for a 4.5% stake, while Brookfield will hold GPUs and data-center assets through an SPV of up to USD 9bn under the disclosed 'AI Factory' structure.
AI Factory revenue is slated to start in 2027, so until then the investment costs hit the P&L first.
The comprehensive share swap between Naver Financial and Dunamu has been pushed back twice, with the shareholder meeting set for November 19 and the swap date for December 31, leaving the antitrust review and pending digital-asset legislation as open variables.
From the first quarter of 2026 NAVER regrouped its revenue reporting from five divisions (Search Platform, Commerce, Fintech, Content, Enterprise) into three: NAVER Platform, Financial Platform and Global Challenge.
NAVER Platform covers search, display and commerce advertising plus services such as shopping, membership and Place; Financial Platform covers Naver Financial, the operator of Npay; and Global Challenge houses C2C assets KREAM, SODA, Poshmark and Wallapop, content businesses including Webtoon and Snow, and enterprise units such as Naver Cloud, LINE WORKS and Labs.
Second-quarter 2026 divisional revenue was KRW 1.9022tn for NAVER Platform, KRW 470.7bn for Financial Platform and KRW 1.0159tn for Global Challenge.
More than half of group revenue still comes from domestic search advertising and the commerce ecosystem, and second-quarter advertising revenue rose 7.5% year on year while service revenue, which includes NAVER Plus Store, membership and N-delivery, jumped 31.3%.
In payments, second-quarter Npay transaction value rose 21.0% year on year to KRW 25.2tn, and the company is expanding into merchant-facing AI platform services through the rollout of the integrated offline terminal 'Npay Connect'.
The global segment grew 24.4% year on year on C2C strength, with C2C revenue alone up 74.9% as transaction volumes expanded at Wallapop, Poshmark and SODA.
On an annual basis, 2025 divisional revenue was reported as KRW 4.1689tn for Search Platform, KRW 3.6884tn for Commerce, KRW 1.6907tn for Fintech, KRW 1.8992tn for Content and KRW 587.8bn for Enterprise, based on the fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call.
In commerce, NAVER runs an asset-light model without its own fulfilment centres or delivery staff, working instead with partners such as CJ Logistics and Kurly, a different capital profile from Coupang's owned-inventory and logistics approach.
Competition is layered: Google, YouTube and Meta in search and display advertising, Coupang and Alibaba-affiliated platforms in commerce, and fintech players such as Kakao Pay in payments and digital assets.
| Quarter | Revenue | Operating profit | Op. margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025Q2 | ₩2.9T | ₩521.6B | 17.9% |
| 2025Q3 | ₩3.1T | ₩570.6B | 18.2% |
| 2025Q4 | ₩3.2T | ₩610.6B | 19.1% |
| 2026Q1 | ₩3.2T | ₩541.8B | 16.7% |
| 2026Q2 | ₩3.4T | ₩520.3B | 15.4% |
| Year | Revenue | Operating profit | Net income (parent) | Op. margin | ROE | Debt-to-equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | ₩8.2T | ₩1.3T | ₩760.3B | 15.9% | 3.3% | 44.6% |
| 2023 | ₩9.7T | ₩1.5T | ₩1T | 15.4% | 4.4% | 47.4% |
| 2024 | ₩10.7T | ₩2T | ₩1.9T | 18.4% | 7.6% | 41.4% |
| 2025 | ₩12T | ₩2.2T | ₩2T | 18.3% | 7.1% | 41.9% |
Consolidated basis (financial statements including subsidiaries) · Final figures from DART filings · Net income attributable to owners of the parent · Data as of 2026-09-04
Annual results expanded for four consecutive years: revenue and operating profit went from KRW 8.2201tn and KRW 1.3047tn in 2022 to KRW 9.6706tn and KRW 1.4888tn in 2023, KRW 10.7377tn and KRW 1.9793tn in 2024, and KRW 12.035tn and KRW 2.2081tn in 2025.
The operating margin stepped up from 15.9% in 2022 and 15.4% in 2023 to 18.4% in 2024 and 18.3% in 2025, while net profit attributable to owners rose from KRW 760.3bn in 2022 to KRW 1.9532tn in 2025.
Cash generation improved as well, with operating cash flow more than doubling from KRW 1.4534tn in 2022 to KRW 3.0958tn in 2025, and the debt-to-equity ratio easing from 47.4% in 2023 to 41.9% in 2025. The last five quarters, however, show a split trend.
Revenue set successive records, from KRW 2.9151tn in the second quarter of 2025 to KRW 3.1381tn, KRW 3.1951tn, KRW 3.2411tn and KRW 3.3888tn through the second quarter of 2026, yet operating profit peaked at KRW 610.6bn in the fourth quarter of 2025 before falling to KRW 541.8bn and KRW 520.3bn in the following two quarters.
The quarterly operating margin therefore slipped from around 19% in the fourth quarter of 2025 to the mid-15% range in the second quarter of 2026. Costs are the reason.
Second-quarter 2026 operating expenses rose 19.8% year on year to KRW 2.8684tn, outpacing the 16.2% revenue increase, with brokerages pointing to GPU-driven infrastructure spending and World Cup broadcasting rights as the main drivers.
On the first-quarter call, CFO Kim Hee-chul said development and operating costs rose 11.6% on higher headcount and the Wallapop consolidation, while partner costs rose 19.9% on revenue-linked fees, recognition of Winter Olympics broadcasting rights and the Npay Connect terminal rollout.
Net profit attributable to owners swung widely regardless of operating profit, at KRW 726.4bn, KRW 313.2bn, KRW 285.3bn and KRW 698.6bn from the third quarter of 2025 through the second quarter of 2026, reflecting volatility in non-operating items whose details require review of the quarterly filings. For reference, second-quarter 2026 operating profit came in below the FnGuide consensus average of KRW 572.7bn.
Korea's search and advertising market is in transition as generative AI reshapes the results page itself.
NAVER has reworked the search experience through AI Briefing, launched in March 2025, presenting intent-matched answers alongside the source content used to build them, and in advertising it said AI-based targeting tools such as ADVoost drove more than half of first-quarter ad revenue growth, with long-tail queries up more than 2.5 times year on year as of March.
A shared industry question, however, is how outbound click behaviour and the conversion of search traffic into ad revenue hold up as AI answers spread.
In commerce, the axis is shifting from search-led comparison to app- and recommendation-led discovery, and management has targeted another year of double-digit SmartStore transaction growth in 2026 while expanding N-delivery coverage to 25% in 2026 and above 35% in 2027.
Coupang, by contrast, plans an additional KRW 3tn investment in nine fulfilment centres on top of its roughly 100 existing sites, keeping logistics competition intense, and the Shinsegae-Alibaba International joint venture is preparing a counterattack through Gmarket, adding to competitive pressure.
AI infrastructure, meanwhile, sits at the start of its cycle. NAVER plans to bring 55MW of first-phase capacity online at its Gak Sejong data centre in the first half of 2027, scaling to 200MW by 2028 and eventually to 1GW, with NVIDIA's Vera Rubin and Blackwell platforms to be deployed in the 200MW build.
In payments and digital assets, regulation is the swing factor: the Fair Trade Commission's merger review and pending digital-asset framework legislation remain unresolved, pushing related deal timelines back.
Management frames 2026 around AI monetisation and a commerce step-up. The company said it will roughly double AI Briefing's coverage by year-end, extend it from informational queries into shopping and local, and pursue new monetisation through a shopping agent and an AI tab.
In advertising, the company said AI Briefing ads, formally launched in late July, delivered click conversion more than 30% higher than conventional search ads and purchase conversion more than three times higher. The AI Factory's capital structure has now been detailed.
On July 27, 2026 the company disclosed a third-party share issue of KRW 1.4809tn (about USD 1bn) to NVIDIA at an issue price of KRW 204,500 per new share.
According to the 'AI Factory Phase 1' reference material disclosed on August 3, the agreement covers the first 200MW of the total 1GW plan, with an SPV funded by Brookfield's USD 9bn buying GPUs from NVIDIA and securing data-centre sites while owning and managing the infrastructure.
The company said Brookfield's direct investment amount into NAVER is undetermined and that the USD 9bn figure represents expected investment through 2028.
On timing, AI Factory revenue is expected to begin in 2027, and CEO Choi Soo-yeon said the company aims to secure customers for initial capacity in advance to generate meaningful revenue and profit early.
In finance, the plan to pursue a Naver Financial listing after the share swap and to form an IPO committee within a year remains in place, so regulatory progress will shape earnings and governance scenarios from here.
Earnings-based multiples sit well away from the several-dozen-times levels large Korean platforms commanded in their high-growth phase, and the share price trades at no great distance from book value per share, though the multiple shown on screen differs depending on whether the in-house or KRX net-asset basis is used.
The dividend yield runs below the market average, consistent with a phase in which capital is directed to AI infrastructure and commerce rather than payouts. Multiples are read differently because several factors are not yet in the reported numbers.
AI Factory revenue is scheduled to begin only in 2027 while depreciation and infrastructure costs land earlier; the Dunamu consolidation will only be settled after year-end; and the third-party share issue to NVIDIA increases the share count.
For reference, Korea Investment & Securities said in a late-July 2026 report that it maintained a 'buy' rating and a target price of KRW 360,000 on NAVER, and Meritz Securities analyst Lee Hyo-jin forecast in August 2026 that the AI Factory business would generate KRW 14tn of revenue and KRW 3.4tn of operating profit by 2032, a scale exceeding current consolidated operating profit.
These are individual brokerage views, and verification will come sequentially through quarterly results and the regulatory and commissioning timeline.
PER, EPS, PBR and BPS are all calculated in-house (the same method as Naver and Toss) · Dividend yield = cash dividend per share from DART filings (supplemented by KRX) ÷ current price · As of 2026-09-04
Advertising revenue grew 7.5% in the second quarter of 2026, but service revenue tied to the commerce ecosystem rose 31.3%. The Global Challenge division grew 24.4%, with C2C revenue alone up 74.9%. Npay transaction value also rose 21.0% to KRW 25.2tn. The widening of revenue sources beyond search advertising underpins the run of record quarterly revenue.
The disclosed structure secures GPUs through the NVIDIA partnership while a Brookfield-formed SPV owns and manages the GPUs and data-centre facilities, reducing the balance-sheet burden of large-scale infrastructure spending.
NVIDIA is investing about USD 1bn through a third-party share issue and will hold a 4.5% stake once payment completes. Commentary has noted that NVIDIA becoming a shareholder acts as a safeguard on GPU supply terms.
The company said AI accounted for more than 60% of advertising revenue growth in the second quarter of 2026, up from more than 50% in the first quarter. It also said AI Briefing ads exceeded conventional search ads on both click and purchase conversion.
Because an early path from the changing search interface to ad products is now being quantified, the durability of these metrics in coming quarters is what to watch.
Second-quarter 2026 operating expenses rose 19.8% to KRW 2.8684tn, exceeding the 16.2% revenue increase, and the operating margin fell 2.5 percentage points year on year to 15.4%.
The quarterly data also show operating profit declining for two straight quarters, from KRW 610.6bn in the fourth quarter of 2025 to KRW 541.8bn and then KRW 520.3bn. Second-quarter operating profit came in below the FnGuide consensus average of KRW 572.7bn.
With infrastructure and rights costs behaving like fixed expenses, the timing of any margin recovery is the key question.
AI Factory revenue is expected to start only in 2027. Naver Cloud said it is in discussions with anchor customers for initial demand and will disclose details when contracts firm up - meaning customer contracts for the first tranche of capacity are not yet public.
Brookfield's USD 9bn is also described as expected investment through 2028, with its direct investment amount undetermined. Any commissioning delay or slow customer acquisition would lengthen the period in which costs are recognised ahead of revenue.
The Naver Financial-Dunamu share swap has slipped, with the shareholder meeting moved from August 18 to November 19 and the swap date from September 30 to December 31. It is the second delay since the deal was announced last November, pushing completion nearly six months past the original June 30 target.
Reports note the schedule could slip further or the deal could fail depending on approvals, with the digital-asset framework bill under discussion in parliament cited as another variable. Expectations built on the combination could therefore be revised as approvals unfold.
The AI Factory scales up in phases. Initial capacity was raised from 55MW to 200MW with a long-term goal of 1GW, and the project involves USD 10bn in total and roughly 100,000 NVIDIA GPUs.
One brokerage analyst argued that operating leverage would only build in earnest about five years after GPU purchase and commissioning, once depreciation and debt repayment run off. Through that period, cost recognition may continue to precede revenue in the P&L.
The Dunamu combination requires multiple government approvals, including Fair Trade Commission merger clearance, approval of the change in Naver Financial's major shareholder plus a concurrent-business filing, and acceptance of Dunamu's major-shareholder change filing.
The core of the antitrust review is whether combining the leading simple-payments operator with the leading digital-asset and unlisted-share platform would restrict competition in financial platforms.
The company said the progress or outcome of the share swap could be affected by the content of digital-asset framework legislation under discussion. Both timing and outcome sit outside the company's control.
In commerce, Coupang's additional logistics investment and the launch of the Shinsegae-Alibaba joint venture keep competitive pressure on.
In search, the spread of AI answers changes both legacy ad inventory and outbound click behaviour, and it is not yet verified over a sufficient period how far new ad products substitute for or supplement existing inventory revenue.
The conversion metrics the company cited for AI Briefing ads should be read as data from just after formal launch. Event-driven costs such as content broadcasting rights also amplify quarterly margin volatility.
Third-quarter 2026 results and the earnings call. Watch the direction of the operating margin, which fell to the mid-15% range in the second quarter, the pace of AI infrastructure and content-rights cost growth, and the revenue contribution trend from AI Briefing ads.
The scheduled shareholder meeting to vote on the Naver Financial-Dunamu comprehensive share swap. The window for notifying dissent runs November 4-18 and the appraisal-rights exercise period runs November 19 to December 9.
The disclosed share-swap date with Dunamu. Whether Fair Trade Commission clearance and the financial regulator's major-shareholder approvals and filings are completed before this date determines whether the transaction takes effect.
Track in sequence whether a definitive contract with Brookfield for the USD 9bn computing-infrastructure build is signed and the first-half 2027 commissioning of 55MW of first-phase capacity at Gak Sejong, followed by the start of AI Factory revenue from 2027.
Fourth-quarter and full-year 2026 results plus the 2027 business plan. This is the point to check whether the N-delivery coverage targets of 25% for 2026 and above 35% for 2027 are met, along with any change in dividend and shareholder-return policy.
NAVER's recent results depict a phase in which growth and costs are expanding together.
Revenue rose from KRW 8.2201tn in 2022 to KRW 12.035tn in 2025 and hit a quarterly record of KRW 3.3888tn in the second quarter of 2026, yet operating profit declined for two consecutive quarters after peaking at KRW 610.6bn in the fourth quarter of 2025, standing at KRW 520.3bn in the second quarter of 2026.
With costs growing faster than revenue, the second-quarter operating margin fell 2.5 percentage points year on year to 15.4%.
On the growth side, the commerce ecosystem, global C2C and Npay transaction value are all expanding at double-digit rates or better, diversifying revenue sources, and management says AI's contribution to advertising growth is rising.
On the other side stand AI Factory revenue scheduled only from 2027 against infrastructure costs recognised earlier, plus approval uncertainty around the twice-delayed Dunamu combination.
The focus therefore narrows to three verifiable facts: the direction of the quarterly operating margin, initial AI Factory customer contracts and commissioning timing, and whether the share swap disclosed for December 31 actually takes effect. This report is for information purposes only and contains no buy or sell recommendation or target price.
Report written 2026-09-05 · Data as of 2026-09-04
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